Turning An Ordinary Bike Lane Into Something Playful

How to stimulate people to cycle to work instead of taking the car? To promote the so-called Bike to Work Week, Canadian designer Greg Papove turned an ordinary bike lane in Vancouver into a playful piece of infrastructure by installing a series of ‘Whoopdeedoo’-ramps.

As you can see, the joyful ramps just make you wanting to cycle over them. Colorful signs placed in both directions notify cyclists and the flags on the ramp can be seen by motorists to emphasise the fun of cycling. Designer Greg Papove teamed up with Claire Balderston for the graphics, which she took well care of.

As we know cities are getting more crowded every year. More and more urban authorities realize that the bike is the fastest,healthiest and most sustainable manner of transportation to move around. Implementing a little bit of urban play could emphasize the fun of cycling, and trigger urbanites to keep their cars in the garage more often. Vancouver’s transportation plan for 2014 encourages citizens to use multiple forms of transportation to reduce vehicle traffic.

A new experiment involving the protection of free-roaming reindeer may just be inspired by Rudolph’s most virtuous characteristic. The project involves coating reindeer antlers with a specially formulated glow-in-the-dark liquid that aims to reduce reindeer-related traffic accidents.

One of the trends of 2012 in design, especially in the urban context, is ensuring that play is a fundamental part of our daily, public lives. London-based Studio Gil Architects seem to agree, but have put together a concept that is directed at those that need play the most: children.

Amsterdam-based interaction designers Theodore Watson and Emily Gobeille created this stunning interactive installation back in 2008, but it’s still worth posting it. Terrarium is an electronic dreamscape that listens to the visitor’s voice. This leads to a dynamic experience of an almost perfect and super neat underwater world. The participants are drawn into a new…

MINI has partnered with designer Asif Khan to create an urban forest in the middle of London. The Forests installation uses plants to explore the relationship between public and private space within the city.